Archives | Amy Seimetz

Set against the backdrop of mile roads, neighborhood blocks, abandoned factories and lakes which make up Metro-Detroit, this story follows four young people as they search for love and adventure on the last night of summer. Maggie, Rob, Claudia and Scott cross paths as they explore the suburban wonderland chasing first kisses, elusive crushes, popularity and parties. They are looking for the iconic teenage experience, but instead they discover the quiet moments that will later become the part of their youth that they look back on with nostalgia.

A blend of reality and fiction, “Open Five” follows the story of Jake, a struggling musician and his sidekick, Kentucker, a maker of “poor” films and what happens when two girls (Lucy and Rose) venture down to Memphis for a long weekend.

22-year-old Aura returns home to her artist mother’s TriBeCa loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her Youtube page, a boyfriend who’s left her to find himself at Burning Man, a dying hamster, and her tail between her legs. Luckily, her trainwreck childhood best friend never left home, the restaurant down the block is hiring, and ill-advised romantic possibilities lurk around every corner.

“No Matter What” is a moving polaroid of Northern Florida, a place superficially frozen in time but increasingly threatened by the modern perils of economic fallout and cheap, dangerous rural drugs. Nick and Joey are 15. They skip school, skateboard, are growing up and old, but not out. They’re almost entirely parent-less, except for Joey’s mom. But she’s been slipping away for years. And then, on an unexceptional morning, she’s just gone. The boys have subsisted in the charming bleakness through each other’s company alone, but their friendship will be defined by the ensuing excursion to find her. [Synopsis courtesy of SXSW]

Two wounded souls commiserate through drinking and aimless wandering while acting out the roles of the happy relationships that elude them in reality. Greta Gerwig and Olly Alexander deliver beautifully-tuned comic performances in their portrayal of young adults learning to cope with the unavoidable perils of emotional dependency.

Recovering from an ill-fated affair with a married man, Gabe finds solace in the relationship he maintains with his ex-wife and daughter. On the other side of town, Ernesto evades life at home with his current live-in ex-boyfriend by spending much of his spare time in the hospital with an ailing past love. Impervious to the monotony of their blue-collar world, they maintain an unwavering yearning for romance. The emotional isolation the two men have grown accustomed to is captured in a subtle, optimistic, poetic fashion while avoiding melodrama.

Sarah (Riley Keough), a young mother, raises her precocious daughter in their country home while feeling abandoned by her husband, who perpetually travels for work. When Sarah’s old friend Mindy (Jena Malone) comes to visit, they decide to take a road trip, and after an alcohol-infused heart-to-heart, a long unspoken intimacy emerges between the longtime friends. Later Sarah is unable to articulate her thoughts about her husband or Mindy, and Mindy makes the decision to leave the trip and go home. Three years later, the two women are reunited for Mindy’s wedding, and Sarah is forced to reconcile the reality of her feelings. [Synopsis courtesy of Sundance Film Festival]